Magazine
Sojourners Magazine: January-February 2001
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Cover Story
If Kurt Warner is correct, maybe God studies the sports pages and fidgets with the remote control on Sunday afternoons like millions of American men.
Feature
Filipino Karl Gaspar spent 22 months in a Marcos prison. This is the truth he found there.
I've been a religion reporter for more than a decade, and I still find that many
misunderstand my title—journalists included.
I understand why people of faith often have an ax to grind with the
media. I wouldn't say to them, "Come on, we have the same mission. We're
truth seekers.
For much of the 30 years that I have been in some of America's top newsrooms, religion was treated like those klutzy galoshes our parents forced on us during heavy snowstorms.
In newsrooms around the country, religion is no longer a dead-end assignment—but the media still have a long way to go before they get it right.
Several years ago I wrote a column on faith and families to be
distributed to secular newspapers.
A Washington Post ombudsman once tried to explain the stereotyping of evangelicals by a Post reporter who described them as "poor, uneducated, and easy to command."
People of faith who complain about the religion gap in commercial television news coverage often try to explain it by charging that people running national news organizations are not well-enough
Prior to the October 2000 ouster of Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, the United States pumped $77 million into the fragile opposition movement
Much of what is best about religion does not need journalism to thrive.
Some of the wealthiest people in America are seeking justice instead of tax shelters.
Not wanting to lose all credibility as a populist, I want to risk my credentials by criticizing for once not "the media elites" but "the people." Those elites may have some anti- or post-religiou
While initially costing a company more in wages, a living wage stimulates an "upward spiral" of indirect benefits to the company.
Commentary
Considering that two years ago Congress had little interest in the issue, the action is nothing short of a miracle.
Peace will only be achieved when Israel embraces the Palestinian people.
Columns
President-elect George W. Bush, as a victor who lost the popular vote and won the presidency with a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, will face a divided nation
Grameen Bank operates beyond the bottom line to benefit those at the bottom of the line.
"You don't know what it's like to have a husband, small children, and a congregation. There's no time for prayer."
Culture Watch
Who owns our culture? Who decides what our songs and stories will be?
Since 1915, the Fellowship of Reconciliation has been the most influential faith-based
peace organization in the United States and, indeed, the world.
In the Old Testament lesson at my church one Sunday, we read, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem...
Faith in the Lord. True love. Murderous violence. The Bible draws on these three
themes. So does good country music. Think David, Bathsheba, and Uriah on compact disc.
Honky, by Yale sociologist Dalton Conley, is a memoir of growing up during the
1970s and 1980s in the projects of New York's Lower East Side.
The Word on the Street has the potential to be a book about two theologians who volunteer at a soup kitchen, feel good about themselves, and write heart-warming stories about their experiences.
Departments
I AM A SHORT-TERM recruiter for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and in a moment of grace I was brought to "Sustaining a Life of Service" by Julienne Gage in the September-October 2000 issue.
Mujerista may not be a familiar term yet, but theologians and others are starting to pay more attention to the voices of Latinas in this country and elsewhere
We've "renovated" [our print version] and you're invited to check out every nook and cranny. We are excited about the colorful new presentation, fresh layout, and debut offerings.
I FIND THE QUESTION "Should Joe Lieberman Keep His Faith to Himself?" (by Jim
Wallis, November-December 2000) to be a silly little pondering.
MY THANKS TO Rose Marie Berger for her excellent article ("Don't Call Me a
Saint!").
"Art has the power to heal spiritual, emotional, and physical brokenness."
AFTER MANY MONTHS of caring for my parents, especially through my father's final illness and death, I had a chance to read Sojourners, which supports my social and spiritual concerns.
Last September's primary elections finally put an African American in Selma, Alabama's city hall—a first for the city.
We commit to proclaiming and living the good news, even when doing so seems absurd.
TOM SINE'S ARTICLE "Branded for Life" on globalization (September-October
2000) was very good.
Paulist priest and movie producer Ellwood "Bud" Kieser, known as the Father
of Hollywood, died September 16. He was 71.
READING YOUR November-December 2000 issue, I wondered why I hadn't encountered more people in the Green Party movement speaking from a place of faith.
The presidential elections weren't the only things casting a long shadow over the Sunshine State this fall.
"Whatever the turmoil, whatever the divisions among humankind, whatever the
violence, the followers of Jesus can refuse to be moved from his transcendent message of
peace.
I JUST READ Elizabeth Newberry's article ("Almost Heaven," November-December 2000). I am also from Bland, Virginia, and it was a very beautiful article.
Chickens have evidently found a soft place in the hearts of McDonald's management...
"To serve the 250 grams of beluga caviar it sells for $139, [Neiman Marcus] offers a $1,500...silver-plated bowl ‘supported,' according to the catalog, ‘by a base of graceful sturgeons.'"
Making caskets is fine. But who's going to clean up this mess? Inside their light,
fragrant workshop, a handful of monks are hard at work. They're planing. They're
ripping.
ROSE MARIE BERGER'S article on Dorothy Day's eventual canonization
("Don't Call Me a Saint!" July-August 2000) delighted me. Day has been one
of my intercessors in heaven.